Immigrant Entrepreneurs

Immigrant Entrepreneur: Lei Wang

Lei came to United States when she was 24 years old to study on a Master's program, majoring in Instructional Technology. She came all by herself and had no one to turn to. She went through a lot of different struggles and challenges as any other immigrant does while trying to figure out this new country. 

Lei graduated, and went on to work a 9-5 job in her field for 17 years. One day, it hit her. She realized that she didn't come to America to have a 9-5 job and to do the same thing over and over every single day. 

She knew that America has a wealth of knowledge so she quit and launched Minuteman Press, a commercial printing company. She didn't have any business experience, and had no idea where to begin. Remember, this field is completely different from what she studied in school.

She turned to books to get her resources, she connected with her successful neighbors, she reached out when she needed to and learned from her mistakes. 

Lei is a self-taught immigrant entrepreneur that provides a wealth of advice in this episode on how she started her business. 

Immigrant Entrepreneur: Kalika Yap

Kalika was born in the Philippines but her family moved to Hawaii when the military coup took over. Her father was an entrepreneur and was always planting positive seeds in her life about entrepreneurship but Kalika thought she had a separate path. She always wanted to be a journalist so she attended New York University and got a Bachelor's in Journalism. 

However, life took her by surprise when she was in CA recently dumped by her boyfriend, with no place to live, and no job. 

Her drive and passion was suddenly fueled into learning all about programming and web design. She started a side hustle and she was hooked. 

Ever since then she's grown to 5 different businesses, she is a podcast host and an author! Not only that, her family is her #1. Kalika has been featured in Inc. Magazine, MSNBC, VoyageLA, to name the few!

Kalika is unstoppable and an exceptional innovator. 

Immigrant Entrepreneur: Vienne Cheung

Vienne's journey to the United States dates back to the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Gold Rush ages. Her parents had to wait 15 years to get accepted to come to the United States. 

Vienne received her Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts and Psychology from University of Massachusetts Boston. But she knew she was always creative and always kept her eyes open for new oppportunities. 

One day, when she realized that there were extremely limited options for thigh high stockings that any woman can wear to any occassion or just daily whereabouts she knew she had to fill that void. 

She started doing extensive research on how to launch hosiery products in America and finally in 2011, she launched VinneMilano without any prior business experience at all. 

Her product line features one of the world's most extensive variety for thigh high stockings.

Immigrant Entrepreneur: Nafy Flatley

Nafy was born with a talent to cook and she was so natural with it. At 8 years old she could whip out a full blown meal and she found her happiness creating healthy meals. 

She came to the United States because it was her American dream. She pursued higher education and graduated from University of San Francisco majoring in Marketing and International Business. She went on by working in the marketing field and was really good at it. But when she had 2 kids at home she realized that working full time and being a mom was pretty difficult. 

She was taken back by the lack of opportunities her corporate career gave her when she asked for a part time job. She was devastated and decided to quit. 

She went looking for answers, but her ultimate source was her own mother. After speaking with her mom, she knew that cooking was the ultimate passion that she should pursue. 

She created Teranga by featuring foods from her hometown, Senagal, Africa. She's partnered up with La Cocina in San Francisco to sell her foods in their marketplace. 

Immigrant Entrepreneur: Timothy Roman

Tim grew up in Russia during communism times where life was tough. You had to go outside of the city to see who had the butter, the chicken, and your basic and trade what you had. 

Tim came to United States at 13 years old and he found himself all too excited in the land of opportunities! Tim thought he could only be street smart and not book smart so he ended up dropping out of high school and selling drugs. That way of living got him locked up in jail where he realized that he's putting his energy in the wrong things. 

He decided to change his way of life and became self taught in entrepreneurship. His journey is completely filled with successes and in this episode he gives us so much insight that any immigrant can apply to his/her life to attain success.

Immigrant Entrepreneur: Yuri Kuts

Yuri had very humble beginnings when he immigrated to the United States. He and his buddy came to United States on a work abroad program. When they realized that it wasn't going to happen it was too late. They were already dropped off in the middle of a field in Panama City. 

That was the beginning of Yuri's journey. 

Yuri and his buddy went around Panama City for 3 days looking for someone to help them. They had no money, no English but a HUGE dream to live in the US. 

So, life took him to New York where he lived in a basement with 7 other people. They all shared one shower. 

He ended up opening up his moving and trucking company at the age of 24, all while being an illegal resident. 

Now, he's making anywhere from $5M-$7M a year at the age of 32! 

His journey is filled with amazing stories and life experiences. Yuri drops some amazing and powerful tips for immigrant entrepreneurs!

Immigrant Entrepreneur: Veena Somareddy

Veena's immigration journey was not all that easy. She was denied three times when she applied for a visa. She had to fight for her entrance, but with her determination she knew she wanted to be in the US. 

She immigrated when she was 22 years old and when she was in her PhD program life took her by surprise. A random act by a stranger lead her to open up her business with a co-founder. 

She's in the augmented/virtual reality industry and what their company is doing with rehabilitation is absolutely revolutionary. 

Their clients experience a lot less limitations by doing virtual reality rehab exercises. 

Veena is full of energy and extremely passionate to change the healthcare industry by revolutionizing rehabilitation exercises. Her journey is definitely one of a kind.

Immigrant Entrepreneur: Maria Orozova

Maria was born in a communist country, Bulgaria where food was scare and buying anything was extremely difficult. She remembers people having to stand in the bread line for hours just because of the limited supply of food. 

Her family immigrated when she was 11 years old and she went on to study marketing and graphic communication at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her journey to entrepreneurship started when she was only 25 years old. With a lot of risk at hand, she went full force to get her company launched. 

She remembers putting in way too many hours in the beginning, but it was all she ever wanted to do. 

She's now worked with clients like Dell Computers, Lexus, AT&T, Four Seasons Private Residences and Indeed to name a few. Her company merged with her husband in 2018 and during COVID, they thrived. 

Immigrant Entrepreneur: Wai-Loong (Y) Lim

Y came to United States when he was 29 years old. He was born and raised in Malaysia but immigrated from Canada. His entire life was spent doodling and drawing anything that comes to mind. He went into industrial design because that was really his passion and he never looked back. 

He came out to Silicon Valley all because this was the place where products are born. He took an internship, but when that company went under he was forced into entrepreneurship, and Y Studios was born. 

He ran his company out of his house so he constantly had employees in his house developing and creating products for his customers. 

Y is extremely talented and saw that he could use his talent through entrepreneurship. Y Studios has been running for 20 years now and it's thriving!

Immigrant Entrepreneur: Daisy Jing

Daisy came from China with her family when she was very young. Growing up in an immigrant household where money was scarce and she was always about saving. 

Her mom worked at McDonald's, in the back kitchen since she didn't speak English well and she worked at Chinese restaurants under the table. Daisy saw first hand what hard work was all about. 

When Daisy went through horrible acne she went looking for answers. What she did next was astonishing. She started to record her journey on YouTube and launched over 1,000 videos. She showed the world what it was like going from acne to clear skin. 

So when Daisy created her own skincare products people started to buy! She knew there was something there and decided to quit her corporate job. 

Banish started close to 8 years ago and it is thriving! In this episode we talk about what it's like being an entrepreneur and a mother to a very young baby!